it's no big surprise that i will wait for you

Congrats to Jesse who as of today is a college graduate. You will want to view his post from yesterday. It pretty much encapsulates how I felt when I took my last final. What an awesome feeling that is. Now I'm looking at grad school, but nothing can rob you of the pure unadulterated joy of handing in your last final and your last fatty term paper.

Tonight the youth ministry is doing a spaghetti dinner fundraiser thingy. I'm not entirely sure how it's going to turn out. I just hope and pray it will go well. The weather appears to have chosen today of all days to crap out, so I'm not sure how our whole "eat outside at 7:30pm" thing is doing to work. We'll make do though. I can just say I am looking forward to about a month from now when all these various fundraising things will be over with. But I need to enjoy the ride.

Wednesday I'm flying out to Chi-town for a week. Going to take some junior highers on a little weekend retreat with a few of my greatest friends. It's gonna be freakin' awesome. Not to mention I get to visit for a week and enjoy the sights and sounds of Westmont and Chicago yet again. I still have a train ticket I bought last year when I visited that hasn't expired. It'll get me from Westmont to Chicago. Score! There's also an outfit member or two in the vicinity that I might pay a visit to. In all I'm hoping for a good week.

I am very thankful for Frances and Nate, and (aside from their friendship) their involvement with the youth. Without them I don't think the ministry would be half as good as it is. They do a lot and help me out not just materially but help to keep my morale up too. They make it so I can take these trips and not worry or stress overmuch. I can simply miss them and the kids and that's it. So cheers to you. I'm stoked that I'm going to be building a team too. Good things are afoot.

One last thing before I head off to the rest of the day. Yesterday I was subbing for Mrs. Kamei, my old french teacher; I sub for her regularly and her classes, especially 3rd period, are fond of me. I really dig them too. So in third period these three girls (who were among those sitting at the table) gave me a present. They knew I was going to be there Friday and they brought what they made. It's a bit of painted foamboard with some construction paper sculpture - not exactly sure how to describe it, they made it with leftovers from a project. But it does say "Mr. Action Jackson" and they gave it to me in "thanks for being like, the best sub ever!" It will definitely go on my wall. Stuff like that totally makes my day.